A Highly Combustible Situation
by whatapotter
Summary: When James makes a cocky boast that he could walk around Hogwarts blind, Lily unexpectedly takes his bet. Now, James has 24hours with a magical blindfold. If he loses he must publically admit failure, if he wins, he gets a kiss from Lily. Let the bet begi
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – In which a first year is lost, an argument ensues and a bet is made.**

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"So," Lily smiled and patted the girl reassuringly on the shoulder. "Do you think you can remember all of that?"

Charlotte nodded up at her, beaming. "Up the marble staircase after breakfast, turn left, walk to the end of the corridor, turn left again and then immediately right, and that's it!"

"And what did we say about Peeves?" Lily questioned.

"To just ignore him; he's nasty to everyone and it doesn't mean anything when he says horrible stuff about us."

"Good girl. Now if you have any other problems finding your way around just come and find me. Hogwarts can be pretty tricky at first – I remember!" Lily mock shuddered, grinning at the little first year, who laughed in delight.

"What's going on over here then?" said an obnoxious voice to her left, and turning she sighed heavily as James Potter swaggered up to the pair of them. "Trouble getting around Hogwarts?" he smiled superciliously down at the little girl, who blushed and mumbled something unintelligible. "Well," he sighed, "I suppose it could be daunting for those who don't know it as well as _I _do-"

"James!" Lily interrupted, furious, even as she put one hand reassuringly onto Charlotte's shoulder. "How dare you be so condescending?"

Glaring, she turned her back smartly on him to address Charlotte. "Don't worry about him – he got himself even more lost and into even more trouble than you when he first arrived," she said conspiratorially.

Behind her James spluttered, choked, and then and opened his mouth indignantly to retort. Whirling, she turned to face him pressing a finger gently to his lips. James froze in shock, and then became mildly cross-eyed as he attempted to stare at her finger.

Lily smiled wickedly at him. "Now, Potter, I want to tell my story without any of your usual jibes, comments or other unhelpful additions, and then you can have your say – deal?"

He winked at her. "Only if you leave your finger where it is to shut me up…" he leered slightly as his lips became rather more interested in her finger. Rolling her eyes at him, she yanked her hand away, and made a show of cleaning it with the hem of her robe.

Then, turning to Charlotte, she began, "Now, if I remember rightly, Potter here, decided he'd make a bit of a name for himself when he first arrived; fancied himself a bit cooler than the rest of us, and didn't much like the fact that no-one seemed to pay him any attention if you ask me." She winked down at the little girl, who grinned back up at her. "So, a few weeks after the sorting ceremony, he decided to sneak out and impress us all by breaking into the Slytherin common room – well, tried to in any rate - and hexing a few of them."

Charlotte had wide eyes as she stared up at James Potter, who preened slightly under her gaze. Lily ignored him and continued.

"Potter, here, had already managed the impressive feat of infuriating a large number of the Slytherins after only a few weeks – I suppose it must be one of your natural talents, eh, Potter?" Lily asked slyly.

James grinned back at her and winked. "What 'impressive feats'? Glad you think so highly of me, Evans."

Lily smiled coolly. "I was thinking more of your aptitude and limitless capacity for annoying others actually, but we'll move on…"

Turning her attention back to the first year by her side, Lily continued her story. "So Potter here sneaks out with the intention of earning a name for himself; no doubt he was imagining the cheering of his housemates on his celebrated return, and the glory he would receive from all of Gryffindor…" she mocked the older boy.

James folded his arms as he watched her, but said nothing.

Lily stifled a laugh. "Anyway, Professor Slughorn found him the next morning, cold, hungry and completely and utterly stuck with half his body sticking out of a wall, and the other half disappearing goodness knows where!"

Charlotte stared for half a minute, gobsmacked, before breaking out into nervous laughter. "But… but… how does something like that happen?"

"It was a trick section of wall," said James haughtily. "I'd cleverly discovered it the day before-"

"Yes, _very_ cleverly," Lily muttered, interrupting him.

"-but it changed from the opening of a staircase to a solid piece of wall at the wrong moment."

"But," Charlotte stuttered once more. "Doesn't that _hurt_?"

"Dreadfully!" James sighed dramatically. "But I bore it heroically and didn't make a sound the entire night; I suffered in silence!"

"Ignore him," Lily sighed. "It doesn't hurt a bit. It just feels like somebody's giving you a really tight hug. You can't move at all, and there's a heavy pressure all around you, but it's not painful in the slightest."

"Oooh," murmured Charlotte, who to Lily's great annoyance, seemed slightly star-struck by this story.

"_Anyway_," she continued, "the up-shot is that he has no right to look down on you for feeling confused and lost at first – he was a lot worse when he first arrived."

The cocky retort that must have been leaping for attention on the tip of James' tongue for a good few minutes now seemed finally to have gotten the better of him. "Now, look here, Evans," he began, affronted. "That bloody staircase may have trapped me, but at least I had the guts to go out looking! I bet I've found more hidden passages and secret tunnels in Hogwarts than the whole school put together!"

"Oh, you do, do you?" ground out Lily, enraged by his attitude. "Just how much bigger will that head of yours grow, Potter?"

"There is nothing wrong with the size of my head! It's all true – ask Sirius, Remus and Peter just how many we've found."

"Oh, of course," scorned Lily, "because they'll give me nothing but the complete unadulterated truth of all your silly little adventures."

"Fine. Don't believe me, turn your nose up and walk away, Evans, just like you always do!"

Lily whirled around, furious. "If my nose is turned up, Potter, it's only to try and breathe some fresh air – the stench of testosterone surrounding you would choke me otherwise!"

"Ha!" he snorted at her. "I think you're jealous."

Lily stopped dead. "Jealous?" she gasped, amazed. "Of you? Of an immature, arrogant, conceited little teenage boy?"

James cheeks reddened slightly, and he became aware that the common room had gone oddly quiet and that Charlotte had slunk quietly back to her friends.

"You're jealous that I know so much more about Hogwarts than you. You're the bookworm Lily, you're supposed to know more than everyone else, isn't that what you think?"

"How dare yo-"

"In fact," James continued, bolstered by all the students staring at the pair of them, "I can prove it. I bet I know Hogwarts so well I could walk around the entire school blindfolded! What d'you say to that, Evans?"

Lily stared at him for a moment, seeing only that infuriatingly cocky grin, the polished pose of a smug Quidditch star and the look in his eyes which already seemed to scream at her _I've won, I've won again and they all know how amazing I am_.

Looking him right in the eyes, Lily Evans replied, "I say, I'll take that bet, Potter."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – In which many disagreements are had, much shouting occurs, and where conditions for the bet are (finally) set  
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James's eyebrows shot so far up his forehead that Lily was amazed they didn't give his fringe a bit of a haircut on the way up.

"_You're _challenging _me_?" he asked, disbelievingly.

Lily stared right back at him. "And why not? It's about time someone had the gall to cut you back down to size."

James laughed at her. "Well, prepare to be embarrassed then, Evans."

Lily smirked right back. "Oh, I won't be the one embarrassed. I think it's about time we set conditions."

James shrugged, uninterested, and ran a hand through his hair to mess it up a little. "Go ahead, Evans."

"When you lose, I'd like you to publicly announce, to the entire student body of Hogwarts, that you have indeed lost this bet and that you are in the habit of giving out cocky and entirely untrue boasts about yourself. Let's give everyone a laugh at your expense for once, shall we?"

James gaped at her. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm quite sane actually. What do you say, Potter?"

"Absolutely not!"

She laughed at him. "What Potter," Lily wheedled, "worried you might fail?"

James set his teeth and sized her up. "Fine! _If_ I lose - I'll be a gentleman and warn you now Evans," he added in an undertone, "which I won't, I will announce I've failed."

"To the whole school," Lily reminded him.

"To the whole school," he growled back.

"But if I win-"

"But if you win, you get the satisfaction of knowing you've won," Lily interrupted.

"Oh no, Evans," he laughed. "You got to set the conditions if I lose, so I get to set them if I win. It's only fair."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him, but acquiesced. "Fine. What do you want?"

"One kiss," he leered at her. "From your good self, if you'll be so kind!"

There was a moment of deafening silence within the common room.

"Don't be ridiculous, Potter," Lily fumed. "There's no way I'm going to agree to that!"

"Fine. Then the bet's off, I suppose. And since everybody here will never know how it turns out, they'll just have to take my word for it that I can walk around Hogwarts blindfolded." He paused to meet her eyes and gave a small smile. "After all - Innocent until proven guilty - isn't that one of your favourite sayings, Evans? Right until proven wrong?"

Lily whirled away from him, enraged. Then just as quickly, she whirled back. "Fine-"

"Fine?!" James interrupted immediately, a delighted smile spreading over his face. "You mean you'll kiss-"

"But I'm adding to my condition," Lily continued, forcefully ignoring him. "When you lose, you also have to give a public apology to Severus Snape."

James yelped, the smile dropping from his face like a stone plunging to water. "What for?!"

"For everything you've ever done to him, of course. For all the fights you've needlessly picked, based on the arrogant attitude that _you were better than him!_"

"I am better than that slimy worm!" James roared.

"You're worse!" Lily shouted back.

They didn't get much further, however, because at that precise moment Heather Dreamwright, best friend of Lily Evans, hurried up to her, wrapped her arm bodily around Lily's waist, and dragged her backwards towards the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

Simultaneously, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, best friends and co-marauders of James Potter, placed a hand on each of his shoulders, while Sirius Black muttered, "James, mate, I think we need to have a talk."

* * *

"Lily, _what are you doing?_" Heather interrogated her, anxiously wringing her hands. "Challenging that idiot, making a scene like that in the common room, it's not like you, Lily!"

Sitting on her bed, safe inside the dormitory, Lily took several deep calming breaths. "I know, I know, Heather. Thanks for coming and getting me. I just… he just makes me so angry! I just… lost control for a moment there."

"He's been making us both angry for six years now. Don't let him start getting to you now, Lily."

"I know, I know, you're right," she sighed. "I just really want to teach him a lesson, show him, and everyone else, that he's just a pathetic little attention seeker at heart."

"Well maybe they already know that – we've figured it out, after all," Heather reasoned.

Lily snorted at her. "Have you seen the way they look at him in the common room? Him and the other three he hangs around with. The first and second years especially; they idolise him, and I just want to shake them and get them to realise that he's just not worth it."

"Well, that may be true," Heather said matter-of-factly, sitting down next to her, "but all you succeeded in doing out there was embarrassing yourself. You're a Prefect for goodness sake's Lily! And you're acting worse than a horny second year on love potion – shouting and fuming in front of everyone, making up silly betting conditions, and generally making a big scene out of yourself."

"Oh God," Lily cringed, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands.

"Now, you'll just have to go back down there, apologise to the rest of the common room, tell them to forget the whole thing and try and restore some order."

Lily looked at her aghast. "I can't do that!"

"You can't go through with it!" Heather retorted.

"If I don't he's won, though," she replied, frustrated.

"Does that matter?"

"Yes!"

Heather sighed, and gently ran a hand down her best friend's hair. "Lily, you're never going to get people to realise what he is, love. He's the Quidditch star of Gryffindor, the boy every first year girl has their earliest crush on and the ringleader of a group of lads that every first year boy aspires to be like." She snorted, and then continued. "Fighting that opinion would be like trying to push a mountain troll up the marble staircase, with one hand tied behind your back."

Despite herself Lily smiled at her friend. "I know. I know all that, I really do, Heather. I'm not quite that blind yet."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, before Lily sighed roughly, clenching her fists in her lap.

"But I can't let him win this one, Heather," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I just can't. And I know it's idiotic, immature, very slightly vindictive and very largely pathetic, but I just can't back away now."

Heather sighed and gave her friend a weak smile. "Well, my shoulder's here for you, Lily. I have a feeling you're going to need it before this is over."

* * *

"Prongs, mate," said Sirius, as soon as the three of them had tossed the black haired boy through the entrance to their dormitory. "What're you playing at?"

"What?" said James innocently. "She promised to kiss me!"

"I don't really think," began Peter, "that manoeuvring her into kissing you is the best plan if you want to get her to go out with you."

"Ha!" proclaimed James. "She'll change her mind about wanting to go out with me as soon as I've kissed her."

Remus shook his head in disbelief. "You think one kiss is going to undo six years of squabbling?"

"You obviously have no idea about the power of my kisses, Moony," boasted James.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend. "Look, you've got the perfect opportunity here to make her change her mind about you. Just go back out there, tell her you're sorry, that perhaps she was right and that you got a bit carried away with yourself. She'll thank you for getting her out of a sticky situation, and you won't look like the arrogant bastard she obviously thinks you are."

James glared at him. "I'm not an arrogant bastard."

Remus sighed. "Then prove it to her by dropping this whole charade."

"You're such a spoilsport, Moony," James huffed, and then turned to Sirius for support. "You think this is a great plan, don't you Padfoot?"

Sirius looked torn. "Depends how you look at it, mate."

Then, when James looked hurt, carried on. "I think it's a great idea for a laugh, marauder-style, and if you were betting against someone like Snivellus, then I'd be in there with you and we'd do a blind three-legged race around Hogwarts!"

"But?" asked James.

"But," said Sirius, "and I never thought I'd say this, mind, but Evans didn't look too amazed with you out there. If you really want to impress her, then I'd go with Moony."

There was silence for a moment, as James looked backwards and forwards between his three friends.

"But if I do that, then I don't get a kiss," he said finally, he voice a little plaintive.

The marauders looked at each other.

"Oh, by Merlin's spotty underpants," exclaimed Sirius, suddenly. "Are we the famous marauders or aren't we? Do we duck out of bets? Do we bow down to a girl? Do we throw away the opportunity to have a bit of fun and make a bit of mischief? No! We don't!"

Peter grinned around at the others. "I think it's time we came up with a plan, boys."

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – In which the Sirius, Remus and Peter hatch their plan, Lily is cornered into Potter-sitting and the bet _finally _begins**

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Sat in a comfy armchair by a roaring fire in the Gryffindor common room, Lily rolled her eyes as her eyes roamed over the scene in front of her. _Really,_ she thought, James Potter could take the lead in any amateur dramatics society which specialised in melodrama and histrionics anywhere in the country, the rate he was carrying on at.

The bet would begin in fifteen minutes time, as the clock struck nine o'clock, and would end at precisely that time the following day. Lily still wasn't quite sure how things had spun so wildly beyond her control; how, of all things possible, she had ended up in a juvenile competition against a boy she had strived to be the polar opposite of for years now, and who, Merlin forbid, she would owe a kiss to if things didn't go as planned. She shuddered – best not to think about that.

Shaking her head at the ludicrous situation, Lily looked up and immediately narrowed her eyes as she spotted Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew all making their way over towards her.

"Lily!" Remus greeted her in a falsely cheery voice, seating himself on the arm of her chair. The others positioned themselves strategically so that she was conveniently boxed in between the three of them, with no immediate avenue of escape. "How are you this morning? Nervous? Excited? Scared, even?"

"Feeling rather like I'm being interviewed for the Daily Prophet actually," she retorted, and Remus grinned and dropped the act. "Shouldn't you three be getting ready to wave Potter off, giving dramatic speeches and playing up the crowd or something?"

Peter shrugged, and looked over his shoulder. "He seems to be managing that fine by himself."

Lily sat back in her chair and surveyed them suspiciously. "What do you three want with me, then?"

"Want?" asked Sirius, looking shocked. "Now what could possibly make you think we wanted something from you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, and said drolly, "Apart from the fact that you're James Potter's three best friends and you're all wearing expressions of contrived innocence that are not in the least convincing?"

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah, apart from that."

"I'm stabbing my wand in the dark then, and surmising that you do."

Sirius winked at her. "Knew you were top of the class for a reason, Evans."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Spit it out, Sirius. What do you want?"

"It's not so much that we want something… we just thought we'd come over and give you some friendly advice – point some things out, you know."

"Gryffindor to Gryffindor," Remus added.

"Such as?"

"Well, you know, Lily," said Sirius, suddenly very solemn, "James is going to be roaming the whole of Hogwarts by himself…"

"Defenceless," uttered Remus, shaking his head sadly.

"Vulnerable," chimed in Peter.

When all three boys looked at each other with similar expressions of gloom, Lily began to sense two things. Firstly, that this was a very finely tuned routine… and secondly, that something very, very bad was about to happen.

"Who know what sorts of danger he might come across, what accidents might happen…" Sirius continued, trailing off warningly at the end.

Remus nodded. "It would only be right to have someone there with him to make sure he doesn't actually get hurt..."

"It's all very well to take a chunk out of his pride – but how would you feel, Lily, if something took a chunk out of him?" Peter added sagely. "It would be your fault, after all…"

Lily looked affronted. "It would not be my fault! He's the one boasting about how great he is that he can navigate his way around Hogwarts blindfolded."

"Ah, yes," smiled Sirius, putting an arm conspiratorially around her shoulders, which she proceeded to shrug off irritably. "Well, we all know what James is like – tongue bigger than his wand, if you know what I mean," he leered.

Lily looked outraged, but Remus interrupted her before she could rebuke Sirius. "The fact of the matter is, Lily – have you ever known James to fall short of a boast when he's tested on it? He'll make sure he goes to all the darkest, all the scariest, all the most dangerous places Hogwarts offers, completely blind, just to say he's done it. As a fellow Prefect, can you really allow a student to do that unsupervised?"

Lily looked cornered, horrified and furious in very quick succession. "You're all his friends!" she hissed at them.

"And of course we'd look after him if we could, but as it happens I've got detention with McGonagall again," returned Sirius, shaking his head sadly.

"And I'm tutoring some of the first years," added Remus, in a saintly tone that Lily didn't believe for an instant. "Otherwise, _of course,_ I'd be there and we'd never even suggest it to you-"

"Oh, very convenient," she scoffed. Turning to Peter, she narrowed her eyes at the small boy. "And what about you?"

He smiled innocently up at her. "Make-up lesson in Arithmancy – apparently I'm failing so badly they want to give me extra lessons," he laughed. "So, sorry I can't help out, Lily."

"I bet you are!" she sighed, heavily. "Well, just go and ask one of his many admirers – I'm sure some of them will end up in the Hospital Wing, fighting each other for the job."

Peter smirked at her. "You issued the challenge…"

Sirius patted her on the arm. "And as Wizard Law states, anyone who issues such a challenge is honour bound to see through all aspects of the challenge itself requiring maintenance or supervision."

Lily narrowed her eyes and poked him hard in the chest. "That's a load of codswallop, Sirius Black. You made that up just to put me on babysitting duty!"

"Prove me wrong." Sirius smirked at her and winked cheekily.

Lily glared at all three of them. "I am _not _traipsing around this castle for a whole day with James Potter!"

Peter sighed, and looked tragically at his two friends. "Ah, well, I suppose we'll just have to hope and pray that he'll be okay then."

Sirius sniffed and pretended to wipe his eyes. "Such a good friend! So loyal, always there when I needed him – to think of him blinded, hurt, lost, confused… no one caring enough to stand by him the one time he might need help."

"He'll be okay, Padfoot," Remus said, putting a hand on his shoulder and gripping tightly. "We have to stay strong."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"And if he's not, well, there's always Madam Pomfrey..."

"Yeah," echoed Peter, nervously. "She's a trained Mediwitch; she'll be able to… to… to fix him up properly if something goes wrong."

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "Come on, guys, we'd better say our goodbyes – just in case."

Lily put her head into her hands. This could not _possibly _get any worse.

"_Fine!"_ she growled, in frustration. "I'll do it."

She was not amused in the least to see the three of them exchange identical grins of triumph.

* * *

"So," Sirius shouted, a couple of minutes later, from his position atop one of the tables in the Gryffindor common room where he had just finished proclaiming loudly all the rules and regulations surrounding the bet to the rest of the house, "it is with much anticipation for the mischief to come that I declare the Blindfold Bet of Gryffindor house officially open!"

Loud cheers erupted from all sides, as James, grinning from ear to ear, saluted to the crowd before sauntering over to stand before Lily.

She assessed him levely. "Now, as this is a magical bet, Potter, the blindfold, once cast, cannot be removed for the full twenty-four hours – even if both of us want to remove it, the charm simply won't break. Are you sure you want to do this?"

He smirked cockily at her. "Get ready to pucker-up Evans – I'll neither want, nor need, to remove it!"

She glared at him. "Fine." Then she twitched her wand rather sharply, causing a silky red ribbon to fly out of the tip of it, wind its way around James head securely, and efficiently tie itself into a double bow.

Sirius whooped. "Let the bet begin!"

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 ****– In which the bet kicks off to a rocky start, and Lily and James to an even rockier one.**

The moment Sirius jumped down from his position atop the table, there was a shout of laughter from the back of the room and then a small tidal wave of movement as a message was passed forward through all the students. As James bowed to the on-looking crowd and began to make his way towards the portrait hole, there was a sudden burst of frenzied activity as the students scuffled to place various chairs, piles of books and convenient table legs directly into his path.

James remained blissfully ignorant of the activity, waving as he was to his peers. Blissfully ignorant, at least, until he tripped rather spectacularly over a strategically placed cushion, and only just managed to stop himself landing in a rather undignified pile on the floor because he first landed with a rather undignified _bang_ against the nearest table. There was an immediate outburst of giggling from the nearest pack of girls.

James blushed, and was not impressed when he heard Lily's soft voice behind him. "How curious, Potter. I think this means they're rooting for me…"

"It means nothing of the sort! It only means they're getting into the spirit of the bet," he muttered back at her, sharply.

Turning to the crowd, he crossed his arms dramatically and said, "Ha, ha," rather drolly. The crows tittered back at him. Taking this as a sign of encouragement, he raised his arms and declared, "Gryffindors! Let's take this bet together with house pride. Let's show those slimy snakes just what Gryffindor is made of – that we don't stop when trouble is in our path, and we don't shirk from our bets! We keep our promises and fight to win!" He gave a cheer, and, predictably, the crowd of students cheered back with him.

Lily's voice growled angrily behind him. "That was a disgusting display of both melodrama and prejudice. What had the Slytherins done to you?"

"Been sorted into Slytherin?" James chuckled, flippantly, busy still waving to a crowd he couldn't see.

"James!" Lily hissed, furious and outraged. "I can't believe you-"

"Okay, okay," he interrupted her, wincing. "Don't get your wand in a knot, Evans – I was only joking!"

"I really wish I could believe that, Potter," Lily returned, coldly. "Unfortunately, this being you, I can't."

He sighed, audibly. "Fine, perhaps it was a bit – but, no," he carried on, changing his mind halfway through, and turned his sightless face towards her plaintively. "You know what they're like-"

"I know what _you're _like," Lily interrupted, furious.

"Look, I just needed to save the situation," James argued, his voice taking on a slightly whiny quality. "I can't have them all laughing at me. These kiddies all look up to me, you know?" he finished, as if expecting she would.

"I have no idea why," Lily returned, her tone decidedly frosty. "Trust you to completely twist a situation just to save you ego!"

James rolled his eyes under his blindfold, and growled back at her. "Well, it's your fault it happened anyway." Sensing an imminent eruption, he carried on hurriedly, "I thought you were supposed to be looking out for things like that! Good work, Evans, really impressive."

"I'm supposed to be looking out for things that render you unconscious in the hospital wing for a month," Lily retorted, coldly. "Believe me, Potter, if I warned you every time you were about to make a prat out of yourself, I doubt I'd ever be able to close my mouth again."

James paused, going suddenly, and suspiciously, still. His mouth twitched once, and then once more, giving Lily the vague thought that he might have some sort of tick. She peered at him, and all at once a dam seemed to break, and with a great guffaw James burst out laughing.

Lily's lips compressed into a thin, disapproving line. She sighed in disgust and observed the common room for a moment; the students all huddled together discussing the unfortunate situation in which she found herself with great excitement and amusement. She caught Heather's eye for a moment through the crowd, and saw both a commiserating and an 'I told you so' look floating there. She abruptly whirled around to face James again, not wanting to admit that perhaps Heather had been right.

The fact that he was still laughing, his breath now coming in short, wheezing gasps, did nothing to improve her temper.

"What?" she finally hissed at him, fed up.

"Oh, Evans," he managed to gasp out. "Don't you see? We have such chemistry together!"

For a minute Lily felt floored. Then, rebuking herself, she pulled herself together. "I see nothing of the sort, Potter!"

"But it's so obvious. These little sparring sessions you always seem to demand – you're flirting with me, Evans!"

"Flirting?" Lily gasped, appalled. "Have you really been chasing me for so long that you've forgotten what's it's like to talk to a girl who actually likes you, Potter?"

James merely flashed his cocky smile at her, and shook his head sadly. "Denial, Evans, is not healthy…"

"Now listen to me, Potter," Lily growled, utterly fed up with him – which didn't bode well, she was unimpressed to remember, for the next twenty-four hours they would spend entirely in one another's company. "There is not even a microgram of _chemistry _between us, you hear me? Not an ounce, not a gram. What there _is _is a large amount of idiocy from one of us, and a reciprocal amount of irritation from the other. I trust I won't have to enlighten you as to which of us those are assigned."

James ignored her, continuing to grin. "You can ignore the situation now, but you can't deny it forever, Evans! Just you wait, by tomorrow you'll have changed your mind completely!"

"I highly doubt it," Lily assured him, with complete confidence.

Just then a vulgar shout interrupted them from someone at the back of the common room. "Get a room, you two! We thought this was supposed to be a bet!"

"Yeah!" chorused a group of voices from various areas, before a storm of chanting broke out, students laughing hysterically as they all joined in.

"START THE BET! START THE BET! START THE BET!" began tumbling at them from all sides.

Grinning, James bowed to the onlookers and then with a dramatic swish he whirled away from Lily and began fumbling his way though the rest of the obstacle course. Lily sighed, cast one more desperate look at Heather, from whom she received little sympathy, and followed him. James paused once, to salute once more to his spectators, and then turned to go through the portrait hole. Unfortunately, he had his dimensions slightly wrong, and instead of exciting the common room, he took a step forward and crashed into the frame surrounding the Fat Lady's painting.

Lily snorted, while a scream of delighted laughter broke out behind them.

James winced, and rubbed at his forehead. "I meant to do that, Evans," he mumbled in her direction.

Lily rolled her eyes, and replied sarcastically, "Of course you did, Potter."

"No really," he assured her, "completely intentional – got to keep the kiddies happy, you see." Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, he indicated a group of first year's who all looked delighted at this most unusual show, and were making a great deal of noise in their glee.

Lily shook her head. "Yeah, regular hero you are, Potter."

He grinned, pleased, in her general direction. "See! Knew you'd come around, Evans. Just you wait, after this day is over you're going to love me!"

Lily deigned not to reply to that, but gave him a not-so-gentle shove out of the real portrait hole. Sighing, she closed her eyes and prayed for strength to get her through this ordeal.

_Merlin save me!_

* * *

**Author Note: ** I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed - receiving so many encouraging responses really increased my determination to carry on writing this fic. Thank you so much, everyone!

I really did intend to start the bet proper in this chapter, but Lily and James decided, as they normally do, that they wanted to write things their way! They wouldn't stop badgering me until I'd written this scene, lol. Next chapter will be up soon - I'll keep you posted!

Thanks!

xx


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